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Digital Week offers lectures, workshops

Showcasing the newest innovations in educational technology and their applications in the classroom, the second annual Digital Week begins Tuesday. The week includes a wide variety of lectures and workshops and is sponsored by the the Office of Digital Learning, the Hesburgh Libraries Center for Digital Scholarship, the Center for Research Computing and the Office of Information Technology’s Teaching and Learning Technologies unit.

Elliott Visconsi, associate professor of English and chief academic digital officer, said Digital Week is an important program for both the Notre Dame community and the general public.

“The concept of Digital Week is to involve not only faculty and students, but also the public in welcoming interactive workshops, programs and talks,” Visconsi said.

Although Digital Week focuses on newly developed technologies, Visconsi said that the subject matter is accessible for everyone.

“The whole idea is to lower the barriers to entry so that everybody feels welcomed, so that there’s something for everybody, so that there’s opportunities whether you’re frightened by technology or are an early adopter and can’t wait to be teaching with holograms, and everywhere in between,” Visconsi said.

Peggy Rowland, senior director of Teaching and Learning Technologies, said Digital Week offers an excellent opportunity to learn about the intersection of technology and the University’s educational mission.

“The Teaching and Learning team will present ideas for designing and redesigning courses, screen capture to support student learning, showcase mobile apps, some [of] which have been developed by our students and we will also show how to enhance classes with digital media,” Rowland said.

According to Rowland, the events of Digital Week have important implications for possible future programs and initiatives on campus.

“Faculty presentations and keynote addresses will stimulate future strategic directions we take in providing the environment and tools in the classroom and in any space that learning takes place,” Rowland said.

Tracy Bergstrom, co-director of the Hesburgh Libraries’ Digital Initiatives and Scholarship Program, said many of the events on Wednesday and Thursday will be housed in the Center for Digital Scholarship and will emphasize geographic information systems and the digital humanities.

Digital Week will include four major keynotes: “Robot Ethics” by philosophy professor Don Howard on Monday, “Newsroom Ethics” by Tim Wallace of The New York Times on Tuesday,“Back to the Future: Philology in a Digital Age” by Martin Mueller, professor emeritus of English and classics at Northwestern University, and “Evidence-Based Approaches to Curriculum Reform and Assessment” by Melanie Cooper, professor of science education at Michigan State University.

While much of the programming addresses developments happening on campus, Visconsi said the scope of Digital Week extends beyond the University.

“The goal is to share what’s going on at Notre Dame but also to learn what’s happening beyond Notre Dame,” Visconsi said.